tours

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of tour.

   The museum runs several behind-the-scenes tours each weekend.

   Her latest album sold out arenas across two world tours.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs here: this one counts journeys, and the verb form says what someone does. As a noun it can count very different trips: guided walks through a museum, an entertainer's run of concerts, a team's trip abroad to play several matches, or the stages of a multiday road race. Context usually settles which. Behind-the-scenes tours are visits; world tours are circuits of performances.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of tour.

   The exhibit tours major museums before returning to its home gallery.

   Each spring the inspector tours every plant in the region.

   Note

   The present-tense verb works in two constructions. With an object it means making a circuit of somewhere (she tours the vineyards). Without one it simply means traveling, often for work (the band tours every summer). Both take the -s after a singular subject. An obsolete use of the verb, meaning to toot a horn, is long gone, so modern readers can safely set it aside.

   The band tours every summer, playing small clubs from coast to coast.

   Now retired, he tours whenever his knees allow it.

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